Monthly Archives: February 2010

It’s not what you think. It’s a link back to this post through a “shady url” service. Instead of shortening, it makes the URL look “shady and frightening.”

I made a URL shortener a while back while I was working In Research & Development at OrangeSoda. It does the same thing as other URL shorteners, only it uses the underscore and hyphen alongside alphanumeric characters in the short URL, and the url is case sensitive (oran.gs/a is different from oran.gs/A). It is complete with bookmarklet (screenshot) and statistics. You should check it out. It’s pretty cool.

Google Buzz was released Tuesday afternoon, and since then I’ve been enjoying it. It’s an interesting combination between Facebook/Twitter and Google Reader. It is more powerful then Twitter/Facebook, and easy to operate. I will continue using Facebook, Twitter and Reader, but will be focusing my social efforts on Buzz. I’ll also be posting my thoughts occasionally.

You can follow me by visiting my profile page and clicking the “Follow Devin” button.

Google Voice Transcript:
With the best day. King whether or not. Okay, we’re gonna okay. Keep the birthday, it’s me. I just asked and I would love says that she says. Peace, Hello. Anyway, I love you bye.

The Palm Pre has many fantastic things built in. Some of these things, such as mail push, chat, use a lot of power, and you find yourself with a dead phone at 3:00.

Here are a few tips to conserve battery power.

First: Check your mail manually or less frequently

1. Open the Mail application.

2. Tap on the Email menu on the upper-left corner, then on Preferences & Accounts.

3. Select each account in the “Accounts” list.

4. About half way down the page, you’ll see a “Sync” section. Tap the “Get Mail” option and select anything but “As items arrive.” I set mine at 15 minutes. The greater the interval, the longer your battery will last.

Second: Turn off chat when not in use.

1. Open the Messaging application.

2. Tap on the Buddies tab at the top.

3. Tap the Green status indicator.

4. Tap “Sign off.”

Third: Close unused cards.

Every open card takes memory, which uses battery power. Close your applications as you finish with them, and this will give you more standby time.

Fourth: Charge more frequently

Charge your phone daily. Most Palm Pres will last for a day under normal usage. Of course, if you’re like me and use your phone more often, you might want to get an extra charging cable or car charger, or splurge and get a Touchstone Kit to make charging a cinch.

The first thing that I had to get used to when switching to a Mac was the shortcut keys. It’s no longer Ctrl + C, it’s Command + C (you use your thumb instead of your pinky). Here are some windows key combinations with their Mac counter-parts.

Function

Windows

Mac

hint

Copy

Ctrl + C

Command + C

Cut

Ctrl + X

Command + X

Paste

Ctrl + V

Command + V

End of line

End

Command + →

+ Shift to select

Beginning of line

Home

Command + ←

+ Shift

Top of page

Ctrl + Home

Command + ↑

+ Shift

Bottom of page

Ctrl + End

Command + ↓

+ Shift

Forward one word

Ctrl + →

Option + →

+ Shift

Back one word

Ctrl + ←

Option + ←

+ Shift

Right-Click

Option + Click

Display App Preferences

Command + ,

Save

Ctrl + S

Command + S

Close Window

Ctrl + F4

Command + W

Quit

Alt + F4

Command + Q

File Info

Command + I

Option + Command + I for multiple files

Delete a file

delete

Command + delete

Rename a file

F2

Return

These should get you started. I think once you get used to the mac keyboard shortcuts, you’ll see that Apple has really paid attention to detail to make the experience as simple as possible, yet still very powerful, especially when you use the rest if the keyboard shortcuts.

You’ll get a dialog box showing the progress of the disk image creation.

When it’s complete, you’ll see the new disk image in the list of volumes in the left pane.

5. Eject the disk, insert a blank disk.

6. Select the new disk image in the volumes pane.

7. Click “Burn”

You will then get a Burn dialog box. When it’s done, you can keep copying disks, or trash the disk image you created.

You’re probably asking, “Why didn’t they just give me a ‘Copy Disk’ button?” Think about it. This way is more powerful. You get to dictate how to create the disk image, where it is stored, etc. When you’re done, you can burn as many disks you need without having the original. Sure it takes more steps. But, it opens up many possibilities.

My sister called today to ask me how to copy a DVD in Windows 7. My answer, as well as all the Windows 7 users at work, was “I don’t know.”

Windows 7 doesn’t come with a disk utility like the other PC maker, so you have to either use a disk utility that comes with your computer pre-installed by the manufacturer. Look through your program list and find one that says something like “Burn CDs” or “Burn DVDs.” Roxio or Sonic are some programs that are typically bundled.

For those of you who don’t have a pre-installed program, try using Nero 9 Lite. It is free, and does basic CD and DVD burning and copying.